Luka Samanic - 2019 NBA Draft Prospect

[spurraider21]

Livio 2.0. Scrub that played his ass off in one fluke game.

livio was drafted for his physical profile, he never had anything resembling nba skills. he had the frame to be a plus defender but never put it together besides the hps summit game.

i feel like luka should have been a second round stash, because i dont think he's NBA ready, but he shows an nba skill set. he's only 19 years old, and can score in a variety of ways, has strong handles for a guy his size, and has a somewhat natural shooting stroke (though he needs to become a good 3 point shooter to carve out an actual career in the league). he's somebody that really could have used a year or two of development, but RC said he wants him on the roster this year. i think he needs to spend a good amount of time in austin.

but i dont put him in the same category as livio at all. this guy actually has some sound basketball skills. i dont like him at #19 though... seems like a reach

[spurraider21]

Luka: C
He's the prototypical euro big the Spurs always fall in love with. He has the build of a Jewish boy during WW2 and will get bullied on both ends of the floor. Teams will be able to guard with him with big guards and they won't regret it. Not a rim protector at all, expect Bertans and Bonner contests which consist of jumping straight up with both arms up. Was below average last year, said it himself, and the only upside he had coming into the Draft were 15 good minutes of an exhibition game against other players his age. He can run the floor well and that's about all he does at an elite level. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

KJ: Grade B
Not my top choice at 29 with Little and Porter Jr still there but that's about where you expect a player like him to go. He's a small SF and his wingspan nor athleticism are anything to write home about. Probably a two year Austin project tbh. Don't see him getting minutes over Gay, DDR, Marco, Davis, or even Lonnie.

little wasn't there at 29, he was taken by portland already. more or less agree on luka. i think he's underwhelming for the spot. but i think he has more game than you let on, offensively.

[EricB]

It’s simply that most of these folks don’t know sh!t.

Thats very true

[monty4329]

One more project who'll never play meaningful minutes in the NBA.

Couldn't stay on the floor on one of the worse leagues in Europe.

[SpursFan0728]

damn timvp is good

[spurraider21]

Yeah, intriguing.

-European scouts are pretty low on him. Even point to character issues.

-NBA scouts are actually higher on him, it seems like.

-Europe still has those glass eating ogres at power forward, while the NBA has done away with those guys for the most part. So Samanic might actually fit better in the NBA than he does in Europe.

-He has a lot of perimeter skills compared to other players his size in the draft.

-For all his skills, he hasn't performed too well in Europe.

All in all, sometimes he looks Nowitzki-ish, sometimes he looks like Ryan Richards part 2.

I still think he's going to be a riser as the draft approaches but he's far from a sure thing. He's in the high ceiling, low floor category with Bol, Rui, Little, Kevin Porter Jr and a handful of others.

remembered this being brought up pre-draft

[Texas_Ranger]

as a guy that watched him play i dont think he's good. We really dont need a tier Bertans, one is already enough.

i feel like an idiot to even compare him to a version of Bertans...

[DPG21920]

It’s crazy to see RC miss this bad tbh. He spent a ton of time on him and rarely misses like this. How could he have been so wrong?

Is what it is and no biggie; it happens. But definitely shocking on what RC saw here.

[Dex]

It’s crazy to see RC miss this bad tbh. He spent a ton of time on him and rarely misses like this. How could he have been so wrong?

Is what it is and no biggie; it happens. But definitely shocking on what RC saw here.

I feel like this thread shows that he was always considered a long shot. Long shots are more likely to miss. High risk, high reward, yada yada yada.

For better or worse, the Spurs typically draft the "safe" pick...and we've got a lot of those guys on the roster currently. They may never be All-Stars, but they have carved out NBA careers so far.

With Luka, I feel like the FO took the chance to swing for the fences...and whiffed. But you can't win big if you don't bet big...otherwise we will be stuck on the treadmill until the cows come home.

How many more euphemisms can I fit into one thread?

[DPG21920]

Sure he was high risk. But if RC spends this much time on someone it’s shocking that it went down this way. This wasn’t a blind pick. He was higher risk to everyone else vs the Spurs because RC knew him very well.

[Mr. Body]

It’s crazy to see RC miss this bad tbh. He spent a ton of time on him and rarely misses like this. How could he have been so wrong?

Is what it is and no biggie; it happens. But definitely shocking on what RC saw here.

To be honest, it was a pretty bad draft. Take a look at it. After some top picks, the rest was an absolute crapshoot. That the Spurs managed to get a good one ten picks later is a good thing.

[The Truth #6]

I love that we have Keldon but would have loved Thybulle, too, if possible.

[rascal]

Many people in here were happy with the pick and high on his potential.

[rascal]

IMO, he's going to be a riser. Too many flawed first round prospects to pass on someone with Samanic's skillset. Plus, he played really well at the combine and his measurements and athleticism all checked out. As it looks right now, for the Spurs to get him they'd have to draft him at 19. Don't think he lasts to 29, especially when teams who prefer a draft-and-stash possibility start getting involved.

This is TimVP's post.

[rascal]

IMO, he's going to be a riser. Too many flawed first round prospects to pass on someone with Samanic's skillset. Plus, he played really well at the combine and his measurements and athleticism all checked out. As it looks right now, for the Spurs to get him they'd have to draft him at 19. Don't think he lasts to 29, especially when teams who prefer a draft-and-stash possibility start getting involved.

[rascal]

One main weakness for samanic is defense. Some experts in Europe think he is a liability on this side of the game.

but the surprise is that he was not bad on defense during the combine.

based on reports in Europe I will not touch him with the 19th pick.

Good take

[TimDunkem]

IMO, he's going to be a riser. Too many flawed first round prospects to pass on someone with Samanic's skillset. Plus, he played really well at the combine and his measurements and athleticism all checked out. As it looks right now, for the Spurs to get him they'd have to draft him at 19. Don't think he lasts to 29, especially when teams who prefer a draft-and-stash possibility start getting involved.

This is TimVP's post.

[DPG21920]

To be honest, it was a pretty bad draft. Take a look at it. After some top picks, the rest was an absolute crapshoot. That the Spurs managed to get a good one ten picks later is a good thing.

For sure - they didn’t miss on anything of note (definitely much better players but no stars or anything like that). But getting Keldon is not the point here…just more about how RC had blinders and even reached hard for Luka because he had scouted him so intimately. Not sure what he saw to give him that level of conviction (enough to put the blinders on and zero in on him at 19). Not knocking the mentality (swing a little bit) - just surprising to see RC miss read someone so badly.

[Mr. Body]

For sure - they didn’t miss on anything of note (definitely much better players but no stars or anything like that). But getting Keldon is not the point here…just more about how RC had blinders and even reached hard for Luka because he had scouted him so intimately. Not sure what he saw to give him that level of conviction (enough to put the blinders on and zero in on him at 19). Not knocking the mentality (swing a little bit) - just surprising to see RC miss read someone so badly.

I don't disagree. Just that Samanic plays a badly needed position on the team. Honestly, if Samanic wasn't a prickly asshole, he'd be a great prospect. But those things apparently were evident back then: didn't get happy for his teammates, was surly, took plays off, often disinterested. I think the team convinced themselves he could mature in a good environment. He clearly didn't.

[timvp]

IMO, he's going to be a riser. Too many flawed first round prospects to pass on someone with Samanic's skillset. Plus, he played really well at the combine and his measurements and athleticism all checked out. As it looks right now, for the Spurs to get him they'd have to draft him at 19. Don't think he lasts to 29, especially when teams who prefer a draft-and-stash possibility start getting involved.

This is TimVP's post.

Yeah, true, good post, tbh

[spurraider21]

Many people in here were happy with the pick and high on his potential.

many sniffers

[K...]

so people here are like "well he sucked always, but pop broke him, and if i coached him he'd be a star/get a first rnd pick on a trade"

I don't think people understand that drafting is like investment, you can make risky bets if your team was strong and at the time we took luka we were deep enough to bring him along.

Even as a bust, it's a good pick as the chance he'd get his head straight was worth the gamble over a limited player. it's fine the spurs take a mix of high risk players. Gotta break some eggs.

[Ocotillo]

Well I am disappointed that Samanic didn't turn out for the Spurs. Like so many, I held out hope the light bulb would go on or he would mature and become a professional but it was not to be.

I now concur (not that PATFO gives a fvck what I think) with the decision. I don't know what happens in practice but it does seem a lot of these guys genuinely get along with each other and root for each other and while some are not evolving fast enough, they are trying and have a good at ude.

Giving Luka more rope at the expense of one of these other guys ran the risk of planting a bit of a seed of division in a locker room that needs all the cohesiveness and chemistry it can get. Say KBD had been the one given the heave ho, how would that have sat with the other guys? Mind you, I don't have any insight or sauces but KBD, Drew and Zollins have all been very visible in hanging out in public with the other young guys (DWhite, Keldon, Primo and Vassell). If Drew or KBD had been shoved out and Luke retained, it might have been the beginning of misbalancing some of the chemistry that is hopefully starting to form.

I am pissed at Luka for wasting his chance and his talent and while I don't know what's in his head, even if he felt out of place being from a different country speaking a different language and maybe he just has a sullen personality, nonetheless, this is the premier league in the world and if you want to be one of the 300 best in the world, it takes more than raw ability. The clay needs to be molded and continually worked on.

I wish him the best but time to move on.

[NickiRasgo]

Spurs will probably avoid drafting international players for a while esp. for a 1st round considering what happened to the following:

- Livio Jean-Charles
- Nikola Milutinov
- Luka Šamanić

Maybe the reason why they didn't drafted Alperen Şengün.

[azarel]

didn't Timmy was supportive of drafting Luka? that probably play a big part of us getting him.